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My first condo board meeting was everything I expected. It had all the tedium of community home ownership — Why are we spending so much on snow removal? When will we need to replace the boilers? — drowned out by a debate over dogs pooping in the courtyard.

But it’s possible for local residents to come together to make their community better.

Tonight I’m at a meeting for the Riverdale Share Concert, an annual fundraiser organized by east end residents. For the past 22 years they have been staging this musical event with all proceeds going to local social programs and organizations. Last year they raised and gave away $26,558 (after an $18,942 operating budget, covered by sponsors).

We’re in the home of Susan Baker, near Riverdale Park. I’m not the jealous type. But there’s a wall of cobalt blue tiles behind a Garland commercial oven in the kitchen, four gas elements and a flat-top, showing circular marks from where her daughter made pancakes yesterday.

I’m using it to warm up burritos.

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It took me a couple tries before my hands remembered the rolling technique. The first one was too large. Filled with yam, stewed beef, guacamole, red rice and cheese, the avocado comes squirting out of the flap. That’s not okay in burrito rolling. Then, like riding a bike, my reflexes kick in.

Susan Baker (standing) chairs the planning meeting of the Riverdale Share concert, an annual fundraiser, at her east end home. (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star)

Corey Mintz provides a recipe for burritos using yams, avocado and either beans or beef. (David Cooper / Toronto Star)

What makes a bad burrito is too much rice, a loose roll and bland ingredients obfuscated by hot sauce. You can still roll a too-large burrito, but I think the eating is compromised if you have to bite around its wide circumference, like a melting ice cream cone, as loosely packed rice spill out.

What makes a great burrito is delicious filling, in the right proportions, a tortilla that’s toasted or steamed so it stretches a little, and a tight roll. As tight as a hotel bed sheet.

If you do all that they retain their heat well and can be eaten with the carefree one-handed ease of a hot dog. I chose burritos because they travel well. On the streetcar ride over, the bag of hot burritos (10 beef, 10 bean) warmed the legs of everyone standing near me.

They’re still toasty when they go in Baker’s oven, and when they emerge, the tortillas are crisp on the ends.

In the living room, next to a scratched-up piano and a framed photo of girls playing with a pony, about 15 committee members gather in a circle of chairs and sofas. They nibble on burritos and sip wine as Baker unfolds a Bristol board detailing the running order of the show.

“Three weeks to showtime, everyone,” Baker reminds them of the deadline, Dec. 7 at the Danforth Music Hall. “Pay attention.”

“The fanfare I’m working on,” starts Tom Leighton, musical director, “is sort of a Dick Dale version of ‘Jingle Bells.’” When no one gets the reference, he demonstrates some surf rock-style drumming.

“This is not the final running order,” says Baker, pointing to colour-coded sticky notes on the board, pink, green and blue, walking the group through the rest of the show, including a child contortionist, pre-teens singing “Rock Around the Christmas Tree,” a hip-hop ballet “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies,” a stilt walker, a calypso band, children’s musicians Sharon and Lois without Bram and the Franklin School Choir (40 of them) doing “Seven Feet of Snow.”

“And they’re going to be throwing Styrofoam snowballs out into the audience,” says Baker. “And then we have the sing-along.”

“Winter Wonderland,” says Leighton.

“Can’t,” Baker tells him. “Robert Missen’s already doing it.”

“We could do ‘White Christmas.’ It’s a classic. And you all know it.”

Baker takes a bite of her burrito, while 7-year-old Alma whispers to me that she’s going to be an elf. Near the end of the show there will a request for audience members to give a little more. In church it’s called passing the collection plate. In organized crime it’s called a shakedown. Here it’s called The Ask and the elves do the collecting.

There’s a cultish fervor about the concert and the annual cycle of hard work that goes into it, with more than 100 volunteers, dozens of local business sponsorships and contributions over the years from professional musicians (Steven Page, Jim Cuddy) and politicians (Jack Layton, who helped the charity get incorporated). Jian Ghomeshi used to close out the night by singing John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas” but he’s, well, he’s unavailable this year.

“This year we’re going to ask Santa: no political messages,” says Baker. “Sometimes he likes to get on stage and start trashing capitalism.” Everyone agrees that the current Santa is the best they’ve had. “We had one Santa that fell down on stage. One got drunk on snowballs next door at Allen’s and almost missed the whole show. Over 22 years we’ve had several drunk Santa Clauses. It goes with the job.”

“One year we had Jack Layton,” recounts Leighton. “And the opposition went ballistic. They were furious.”

Aside from that, the meetings don’t get too political.

“We don’t fight but it can go off on all sorts of tangents,” says Baker. “We’re not sitting around a boardroom table. We don’t have Robert’s Rules of Order. We drink wine. We eat food. A lot of us would probably never have connected to each other. But through Riverdale Share we’ve all become friends.”

I will try to hold this image — of friendship, teamwork and charity — in my heart, when I go to my next condo meeting and hear someone ask if we can install security cameras in the courtyard to catch the pooping dog.

BEEF AND/OR BEAN BURRITOS

I’m not going to describe how to roll a burrito because that can only be explained visually. That’s why we make videos every week so check there. Below are the fillings I made. It’s up to you to decide how much of each, in addition to cheese (grated cheddar, cotija or Oaxaca cheese), onions, cilantro or sour cream.

Beef or beans

1 clove garlic

1/2 Spanish onion

1 tbsp (15 mL) ground cumin

2 tbsp (30 mL) chili powder or chopped chipotle in adobo sauce

3 lbs (1.35 kg) beef chuck, cut into bite-sized chunks

2 tomatoes, diced

1 tbsp (15 mL) limejuice

In a large pot on medium heat, use oil to sauté garlic until fragrant, 1 minute. Add onion and sauté until browned, about 5 minutes. Add cumin and chili and stir 1 minute. Add beef and stir until browned, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook until meat is soft, about 2 hours. Add limejuice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For bean version, add 4 cups (1 L) black beans and 1 cup (250 mL) water in place of beef. Use the water to cook down the beans a bit more until they’re soft enough to puree, about 20 minutes. Puree about half of the beans (easiest with a hand blender) so the mix has a creamy/chunky contrast.

Yams

1 large yam

1 tsp (5 mL) butter

sprinkle of salt

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

Place yam in oven-proof pan with butter and salt. Roast until yam is cooked through, turning occasionally, about 90 minutes. Let cool before peeling off skin.

Avocado

1 avocado

1 tsp (5 mL) limejuice

1/2 jalapeno chili, minced

salt

Cut avocado in half. Scoop out flesh. In a mixing bowl, mash avocado with limejuice, chili and salt to taste.

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